A Family Thing

I am so glad that my mom finally joined me on this blog! One of the best things about Marathon training for me has been that I know I am not doing it alone. Even though my mom and sister don't live close, we are all in our own way preparing for the 26.2 miles.

My mom and I were talking about our training the other day, and she mentioned how the house just isn't going to be as clean while she is marathon training. Today, I returned the book The Paris Wife to the library that I only read half of...it was due early because it is a new bestseller and there is a waiting list. I also returned Water For Elephants to the library half read for the same reason. Marathon training takes a lot of time, and something has to give.

My husband and three boys have really stepped up to help and support me while I train. My long Saturday runs take the most time, and usually I need a long shower, and then a really long nap afterwards and I am useless for most of the day.

This last Saturday I ran 7 miles to a park with my dog. My husband and three kids were waiting at the park to take the dog and hand me a bottle of water. I handed off the dog without even stopping and then ran an additional 12 miles down to the ocean, for a whopping grand total of 19 miles! And the best part, was that playing on the rocks by the beach when I got there, were my boys and hubby. They had a banana and some gatorade there for me. I went in to the water to cool my muscles and of course all three boys joined in - we were all in our clothes and all soaking wet! It was so fun to play with them at the beach and I am terrible at "Playing" sometimes which is bad, but true. This way, I felt like I was doing necessary icing of muscles, and they felt like mom was swimming in the ocean with her clothes on. It was win, win.

After we left the beach we stopped at Starbucks for some more much-needed calcium and sugar (a pumpkin spice latte) and scones for the kids. I felt very blessed to have my family (and even my dog) to be along side me for my run!

So apart from the 19 miler (at about 9:50 a mile) I also ran 8 miles today (at a 9:15) and I feel great! I am still a little bummed that I will probably be significantly slower in Athens, but for now I am having fun. This is supposed to be a rest week for me so tomorrow I have to run 4 miles and then only 2 the day after that. Soon enough though I will be doing subsequent 18, 19 and 20 mile runs and then a shorter run and then the marathon! Time is flying!